Cows to have Aadhaar like ID

The central government has informed the Supreme Court that it intends to provide unique identification number for cows as suggested by an expert committee to track cattle and prevent their trafficking.

According to the August 2016 report submitted by the committee constituted by the home ministry, the unique ID will have the details like cattle’s age, breed, sex, height, body colour, horn type, tail switch, lactation profile (in case of milch cattles) and other special marks. The IDs are proposed to be provided in the form of a polyurethane tag. In addition, the registration proof has to be maintained by the owner of the cattle which should be transferred to the next owner in case of legitimate transfer of the cattle. The committee has also recommended that a state level data base may be uploaded to a website that links with a national online database.

The response of the government was submitted to Supreme Court which was hearing the PIL filed by Akhil Bharat Krishi Gosewa Sangh.

Need

According to the government, the recommendations of the panel will help in stop trafficking of cattle across the Indo-Bangladesh border and will also prevent smuggling of cattle to Nepal for being sacrificed at the Gadhimai festival, which is held once in five years.

Also, as per the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act read with Export Import Policy(Exim policy) of India requires that cattle can be exported to other countries only with a valid license from the regional licensing authority.

The allocation of unique ID will also help to prevent cruelty towards the animals. They can be vaccinated on time and scientific intervention can be made available on time. It would also pave way for making a uniform act for cow preservation and protection in India.